Trump calls Putin sincere, ex-US intelligence heads 'hacks'

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Days before returning home from a whirlwind trip to Asia, President Donald Trump was back on the defensive over Russian election meddling, saying he considers President Vladimir Putin's denials sincere, dismissing former U.S. intelligence officials as "political hacks" and accusing Democrats of trying to sabotage relations between the two countries.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin had again vehemently insisted — this time on the sidelines of an economic summit in Vietnam — that Moscow had not interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections. Trump declined to say whether he believed Putin, but he made clear he wasn't interested in dwelling on the issue.

"He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did," Trump said as he travelled to Hanoi, the second-to-last stop of his Asia trip.

"Every time he sees me, he said: 'I didn't do that.' And I believe — I really believe — that when he tells me that, he means it," Trump said. He called the accusation an "artificial barrier" erected by Democrats — once again casting doubt on the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia tried to interfere in the election to help the Republican Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The president lashed out at the former heads of the nation's intelligence community, and said there were plenty of reasons to be suspicious of their findings. "I mean, give me a break. They're political hacks," Trump said, citing by name James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, John Brennan, the former CIA director and his ousted ex-FBI director James Comey, whom Trump said was "proven now to be a liar and he's proven to be a leaker."

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US cities, states defy Trump, still back Paris climate deal

BONN, Germany (AP) — A group of U.S. states, cities, businesses and universities said Saturday they are still committed to curbing global warming even as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is walking away from the Paris climate accord.

But the alliance, which has an economy larger than Japan and Germany combined, says it won't be able to achieve the necessary cut in greenhouse gas emissions without some efforts at the federal level.

"It is important for the world to know, the American government may have pulled out of the Paris agreement, but the American people are committed to its goals, and there is nothing Washington can do to stop us," former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a global climate meeting in Bonn, Germany.

Gov. Jerry Brown of California echoed those comments.

"In the United States, we have a federal system, and states have real power as do cities. And when cities and states combine together, and then join with powerful corporations, that's how we get stuff done," he said.

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Lawmakers question whether key CIA nominee misled Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two former CIA employees are accusing the Trump administration's choice for CIA chief watchdog of being less than candid when he told Congress he didn't know about any active whistleblower complaints against him.

Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Christopher Sharpley, the current acting inspector general who's in line for the permanent job, about complaints that he and other managers participated in retaliation against CIA workers who alerted congressional committees and other authorities about alleged misconduct.

"I'm unaware of any open investigations on me, the details of any complaints about me," Sharpley testified at his confirmation hearing last month.

He said he might not know because there is a process providing confidentiality to anyone who wants to file a complaint against government officials, who often are individually named in cases against management.

"No action or conclusions of wrongdoing have been made about my career or anything that I've done," Sharpley added.

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Veterans Day marked with parades, sombre ceremonies

Americans honoured their military veterans Saturday with a parade in the wintry cold of New York City, where one World War II vet thanked onlookers for remembering, and in a sombre ceremony in a Texas community bloodied by a church massacre where almost half of those killed had ties to the U.S. Air Force.

Across the Atlantic, millions of people in Britain and France paused to remember war victims as they marked Armistice Day, which this year was the 99th anniversary of the end of World War I.

In parks, war memorials, football fields and on streets across the United States, politicians and citizens gathered to thank those who have served in the nation's armed forces.

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In Sutherland Springs, Texas, a Veterans Day ceremony outside a community centre was grim as about 100 people gathered under cloudy skies, honouring the more than two dozen people killed a block away at a church last Sunday.

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George Takei, Richard Dreyfuss respond in harassment scandal

NEW YORK (AP) — George Takei took to Twitter on Saturday to deny groping a male model and Richard Dreyfuss said he never exposed himself to a female writer helping him with a TV script, both back in the 1980s.

Takei, the 80-year-old "Star Trek" icon, said in a series of tweets that events described by Scott R. Brunton in The Hollywood Reporter "simply did not occur," and he does not remember ever knowing Brunton.

"Right now it is a he said/he said situation, over alleged events nearly 40 years ago. But those that know me understand that non-consensual acts are so antithetical to my values and my practices, the very idea that someone would accuse me of this is quite personally painful," Takei tweeted.

Dreyfuss, meanwhile, told the New York magazine blog Vulture he flirted and even kissed Los Angeles writer Jessica Teich over several years but thought it was a "consensual seduction ritual." The fact that "I did not get it," he said, "makes me reassess every relationship I have ever thought was playful and mutual."

Teich told Vulture she first met Dreyfuss at a theatre where she worked and they spent hours together over several years after she was hired to develop a script for an ABC comedy special. The actor, she said, made continual, overt and lewd comments and invitations but she never told anyone. Dreyfuss, now 70, called Teich a friend of more than 30 years.

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Australia's croc hunter is unlikely gay-rights champion

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — As a self-described straight crocodile hunter from the country's rugged and socially conservative far north, Australian lawmaker Warren Entsch doesn't fit many people's mould of a gay-rights activist.

But if results of a nationwide postal survey this week reveal that most Australians want same-sex marriage legalized, it is Entsch — from the country's leading conservative party, no less — who plans to introduce legislation that could make it a reality as soon as December.

Entsch, 67, emerged as an unlikely champion for gay rights back in 2004, when he complained that the government had amended federal laws to make clear that marriage exists only between a man and a woman.

He was the only lawmaker from his conservative Liberal Party or the centre-left opposition Labor Party to speak out, earning him the moniker "progressive redneck" from bemused media outlets.

"I got literally thousands and thousands of communiques, not from the gays, but from the broader community — family, friends and relatives of gays — saying that if a healthy heterosexual, far north Queensland crocodile-farming, bull-catching Liberal can speak out on behalf of my gay friend or relative, we want to come out too," Entsch said.

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Q&A: US, Saudi Arabia accuse Iran over Yemen missile launch

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Both Saudi Arabia and the U.S. now accuse Iran of supplying ballistic missiles to Shiite rebels in Yemen, including one that targeted the kingdom's capital of Riyadh and its international airport.

Here's what is known:

WHERE IS YEMEN AND WHO IS FIGHTING THERE?

Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, sits on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Saudi Arabia and Oman. It looks out onto the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. Shiite rebels known as Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition began battling the Houthis and their allies in September 2015 on behalf of Yemen's internationally recognized government. The war has killed more than 10,000 civilians and pushed millions of Yemenis to the brink of famine.

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Allegations against Roy Moore roil US evangelical ranks

For many evangelicals, fiery Alabama politician and judge Roy Moore has been a longtime hero. Others have sometimes cringed at his heated rhetoric and bellicose style.

Now, as Moore's U.S. Senate campaign is imperiled by allegations of sexual overtures to a 14-year-old girl when he was in his 30s, there's an outpouring of impassioned and soul-searching discussion in evangelical ranks.

"This is one of those excruciating decision moments for evangelicals," Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in a telephone interview. "These allegations, if true, are devastating. If true, this is a very big deal."

Mohler said Alabama voters face a potentially wrenching task of trying to determine if the allegations — Moore has emphatically denied them — are credible.

According the Pew Research Center, 49 per cent of Alabama adults are evangelical Protestants. For some of them, the Moore allegations echo the quandary they faced last year, wrestling over whether to support Donald Trump in the presidential race despite his crude sexual boasts.

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Texas church shooting victims honoured, funeral held

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Two silver hearses carrying the bodies of a couple killed in last weekend's shooting at a Texas church were followed by a long procession of vehicles Saturday that avoided passing the small church where more than two dozen people died.

Mourners instead drove around the tiny community of Sutherland Springs before reaching a cemetery on the edge of town, where dozens more vehicles waited along a rural road for the private burial of Therese and Richard Rodriguez. Sheriff's SUVs shielded mourners at the cemetery's three entrances.

The services for the recently retired couple followed a ceremony earlier in the day where about 100 people gathered to commemorate Veterans Day and to honour the shooting victims, nearly half of whom had ties to the Air Force.

"Maybe this will start the healing process that will get Sutherland Springs and Wilson County to put this horrific tragedy behind us and look to the future," county Judge Richard Jackson, his voice breaking, told the crowd, which included first responders and law enforcement officers.

Jackson, the county's top administrator, thanked the first responders and others who rushed to First Baptist Church in the aftermath of Sunday's shooting. What they saw there will affect them the rest of their lives, Jackson said during the ceremony outside the town's community centre, where a wreath was placed near flags to remember those killed.

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Tiny Texas town turns inward in wake of mass shooting

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — The people of Sutherland Springs have not held news conferences, they haven't made appearances on network morning television shows, and while they've been polite to the media, they're not exactly forthcoming. Instead, this rural community is turning to the one thing that has buoyed them in good times, and sustains them now: an unshakeable faith in God.

David Colbath, one of about 20 people who were injured but survived Devin Patrick Kelley's rampage at the First Baptist Church, held Bible study from his hospital bed. Judy Green, a church member who avoided the carnage because she and her husband were running an errand, sought counselling at another church because of what she saw when she drove up to the building that day. Crystal Barkley, a Sutherland Springs resident who doesn't even attend the church, prayed and "stayed at home for a couple of days, collecting strength."

There have been no fewer than three prayer vigils for the victims. One, held Wednesday and attended by Vice-President Mike Pence, was so large that it had to be held in the neighbouring town's football stadium. On Sunday, the town will gather for church services in its community centre, which is next door to the church and was part of the crime scene for several days. Residents have included reporters in impromptu prayer circles and have tried, quietly, to let the world know that it is a God-loving town, not a place of violence.

"We want to be known for more than this," sighed Tambria Read, president of the local historical museum, schoolteacher and lifelong resident. "We are not a shoot-'em-up community."

It's difficult to put into words what happens to a place after a mass shooting, and each has its own way of dealing with the horror. In big cities like Orlando and Las Vegas, it was possible for those not directly affected to mourn and move on, to try to get back to normal as quickly as possible and mend aching hearts. Suburban sprawl and the comforts of urban life helped smooth over the raw emotion and residents could ignore the media, the outsiders coming to help, the constant reminder of loss.

News from © The Associated Press, 2017